Vanessa Faria is a multi-disciplinary performer, model, choreographer, teacher and healer based in Toronto, Ontario.

Vanessa has received her arts education from Claude Watson School for the Arts (CWSA), Etobicoke School of the Arts (ESA) where she received the Lian Thomas Award for Dance, and most recently The School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s Professional Training Program in Contemporary Dance (STDT). Having attended arts schools as her primary education she has an innate value of incorporating and blending all art forms and medias in the work that she embarks upon . At STDT, she has had the privilege of working with esteemed faculty and choreographers such as Massimo Agostinelli, Kate Alton, Elizabeth Au Clair, Johanna Bergfelt, Marc Boivin, Robert Desrosiers, Fiona Griffiths, Danny Grossman, Christopher House, Allen and Karen Kaeja, Coralee McLaren, Pat Miner, Tedd Robinson, Julia Sasso, and Darryl Tracy.

Since graduating, Faria was fortunate to participate in Tedd Robinson’s 60 Dancer Project as part of Canada Dance Festival 2014 in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre, as well as a work by artist Derek Liddington for Scotiabank’s Nuit Blanche 2014. For Ballet Creole's 25th Anniversary showcase Vanessa joined the company to perform in Myth of Atlantis choreographed by Gabby Kamino. Most recently she has danced as a guest artist with Toronto Dance Theatre in Fall For Dance North Festival 2015 in Christopher House's masterpiece Vena Cava, at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.

Faria strongly believes in healing others and sharing her boundless love of life through dance and movement. She enjoys teaching and inspiring young dancers at various levels, and has choreographed the semi-professional children’s musical Noye’s Fludde with the Toronto Viva Youth Choir. She is a recurring guest artist for Canada’s leading high school show-choirs SPLASH, and GLO from ESA. Her strong interest in physiology has led her to become a certified CanFitPro Personal Training Specialist and a Cranial Sacral Therapist, which she further practices at MISFIT-STUDIO.

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Currently Vanessa is interested in developing her artistry by creating and opening up vessels for collaboration. She is also focusing on developing technical capacity by engaging in unconventional cross-training such as parkour, social dancing, yoga and SUP to support her contemporary background and continue to inspire her unique movement vocabulary. Expanding her teachings and creation processes is something she continually expands upon through the experiences of her practices in cranial sacral therapy, soul therapy, and past-life regression therapy. She is eager to continue exploring how her diverse interests blend together so that she may continuously create and live in the rich spaces of their in-betweens.